When drilling or coring holes in subsurface formations, it is often desirable to be able to vary and control the direction of drilling, for example to direct the borehole towards a desirable target or to control the direction horizontally within the payzone once the target has been reached. It may also be desirable to correct for deviations from the desired direction when drifting a straight hole, or to control the direction of the hole to avoid obstacles.
The two basic means of drilling a borehole are rotary drilling, in which the drill bit is connected to a drill string which is rotatably driven from the surface, and systems where the drill bit is rotated by a downhole motor, either a turbine or a positive displacement motor. Hitherto, fully controllable directional drilling has normally required the use of a downhole motor, and there are a number of well known methods for controlling the drilling direction using such a system.
However, although such downhole motor arrangements allow accurately controlled directional drilling to be achieved, there are reasons why rotary drilling is to be preferred. For example, steered motor drilling requires accurate positioning of the motor is a required rotational orientation, and difficulty may be experienced in this due, for example, to drag and to wind-up in the drill string. Accordingly, some attention has been given to arrangements for achieving a fully steerable rotary drilling system.
For example, British Patent Specification No. 2259316 describes various arrangements in which there is associated with the rotary drill bit a modulated bias unit. The bias unit comprises a number of hydraulic actuators spaced apart around the periphery of the unit, each having a movable thrust member which is hydraulically displaceable outwardly for engagement with the formation of the borehole being drilled. Each actuator has an inlet passage for connection to a source of drilling fluid under pressure and an outlet passage for communication with the annulus. A selector control valve connects the inlet passages in succession to the source of fluid under pressure, as the bias unit rotates. The valve serves to modulate the fluid pressure supplied to each actuator in synchronism with rotation of the drill bit, and in selected phase relation thereto whereby, as the drill bit rotates, each movable thrust member is displaced outwardly at the same selected rotational position so as to bias the drill bit laterally and thus control the direction of drilling.
The present invention provides a number of developments and improvements to the basic type of modulated bias unit to which Specification No. 2259316 relates.